Michael Zammit Tabona reportedly wrote on his Facebook page: "Seventy-five years ago we stopped Hitler. Who will stop Angela Merkel? She has fulfilled Hitler's dream! To control Europe."

The post has since been deleted.

Maltese Foreign Minister Evarist Bartolo said Germany would receive an apology, the Times of Malta reports.

Mr Bartolo told the newspaper that he had instructed the ambassador to remove the comment "as soon as I was alerted to it".

Mr Zammit Tabona, who became Malta's ambassador in Finland in 2014, has so far made no comment on the row.

He is reported to be a political appointee - not a career diplomat.